(Picture clips can be seen for locations with a blue * by clicking here!)

Ft. Lauderdale, FL*

Berry Islands, Bahamas

Atlantic City, NJ*

NYC*

Manhassett, LI

Milford, CT

Shelter Island, LI*

Block Island, RI*

Newport, RI*

Provincetown, MA

Pennobscott Bay, ME*

Islesboro, ME

Stonnington, Deer Island, ME

Buck Harbor, ME

Isle au Haut, ME

Winter Harbor, ME

Boothbay Harbor, ME

Isle of Shoals, ME

Marblehead, MA

Woods Hole, Healey Harbor, MA

Falmouth, MA & Boston by car*

Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard, MA

Block Island, RI*

Chesapeake City, MD

Baltimore, MD

St. Michaels, MD

Annapolis, MD & Washington DC/Old Town Alexandria by car

Oxford, MD

Solomon's Island, MD

Fishing Bay, VA

Hampton, VA

Cape Canaveral, FL and Melbourne SSCA GAM by car*

Ft. Lauderdale, FL*

We had the opportunity to visit a few Useppians on our New England voyage. We only wish we hadn't gotten off to such a late start on our shakedown cruise so we could have visited with others.


Gretchen Coyle, Carol Doherty and Karen in Atlantic City	Jim Doherty, Dan and John Coyle toasting at Trump's Marina	Mae and Bob Osborne, Shelter Island Yacht Club, LI

We finally made it to Useppa Island. We must say that there were a few times we didn't think we would make it here for XMAS because of delays in Ft. Lauderdale and weather that we encountered in Key West. For the first time in our sailing career together, Karen and I actually aborted a departure after being into head winds and nasty seas for the first hour and a half of the voyage. Not being on a "demanding" schedule sure is nice. Having the luxury of turning around and delaying a trip to wait for nice weather sure is a wonderful luxury. As it stood, we arrived at Useppa XMAS eve.

We have spent a wonderful time visiting with our friends on Useppa Island. There was an "Open House Walk" put on by home owners on Useppa Island. It was a lot of fun. Our boat was the last "home" on the tour and we enjoyed sharing our abode with fellow Useppians after having spent a delightful time visiting some very special homes on the island. One neat thing about Useppa, is that no matter where the home is located on the island, all views are exquisite.

We were also visited by newly weds Teresa and René. They were honeymooning here on the East coast and we are honored that they took the time to visit with us. We met Teresa in the Galapagos. René is from LA We wish them the very best and lots of happiness.

"Now, DASHER! Now, DANCER! Now, PRANCER and VIXEN!

On, COMET! On CUPID! On, DONNER and BLITZEN!

To the mouth of the river! To the Gulf Stream's wall!

Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!"

.....We're leaving for Useppa

We wish you all a Happy Holiday Season and the best New Year !

We are now back in the water after being on the hard for about a month. We had a number of things done to Dakare, the one item that took the longest was sending our prop back in to be refurbished. We had both our engine and our Genset checked out and tuned. We had the bottom sanded and repainted. We also had a variety of jobs done to our rig, floor boards, anchor galvanized, windlass replaced, Sails tweaked, sail tracks extended, etc., etc. Now for the finishing touches and we should be off in about a week's time.

commissioned. We brought her here to get her bottom painted and to have a number of small commissioning items finished prior to leaving for the South Pacific. We hope to be done sometime soon after the 1st of December. We are thinking of spending XMAS in Useppa. When we leave Useppa, we intend to head towards the Canal, via Providencia and San Andreas, islands that are North of the Panama Canal. See chart in previous letter.

Morgan came and visited with us for about ten days. We took some time out to go to Epcot Center. Morgan still hasn't sailed on Dakare. The plan was for us to go sailing while he visited us in Florida, but delays at the yard kept the boat on the hard and we weren't able to take him out. Bummer!

On our way South from Annapolis, we caught a nice weather window around Cape Hatteras and Cape Fear. The weather started to deteriorate and by the time we got as far South as Cape Canaveral, the situation became questionable since there was a possibility of Hurricane Michele hitting the Florida coast. So we pulled in at Cape Canaveral while Michele did her thing. There was a great deal of concern in the Ft. Lauderdale/Miami area that Michele would hit there, but we were about 100+ miles North of that and it became clear early on that our choice of stopping in Cape Canaveral was a prudent one. While there, we took the opportunity to tour the Kennedy Space Flight Center. It was quite interesting and we recommend it to anyone who is interested in the US space program.

We also attended the SSCA Gam in Melbourne, Florida. While there, we were asked to participate in a panel for Cruisers at the bequest of Dave and Harriet on Pageant. Karen told her favorite story (a form of husband bashing) of why she decided to take the Yanmar engine course. The details will not be repeated here...

Also at the Gam was the WinLink team presenting WinLink e-mail using Airmail 3 as the client. There was standing room only during their day long series of lectures. The Ham and cruising community has truly benefitted from there altruistic efforts. Three cheers and many thanks to the team:

and the second was an absolutely delightful sail from the Bahamas to Maine and back here to Annapolis. Our Hylas sails really well. In fact, we believed that our deep draft double ender Slocum was a good sailing boat, but our Hylas absolutely puts it to shame. Needless to say, we are very happy.

While in Maine we attended the SSCA Gam. We met many old cruising friends and made many more new acquaintances. We foraged for Maine mussel with our Caribbean cruising buddies, Dolores and Rudy from Top Cat. Karen outdid herself with her "special" mussel broth. Dolores, who never liked mussels became a convert, may I say, a mussel "addict", in large part due to Karen's recipe.


Karen, Rudy and Dolores eating ice cream in Stonnington, Deer Island, Maine	Allan Dalhgren visiting from Denmark.	Dick Jackney and daughter Ann in Hylas's Marblehead offices	Carol, Hylas Administrator

Regina and new friend, Peter at the Edgartown Yacht Club	Regina and son, Johnny, toasting in a Newport Pub	Regina's quest, the Newport Tennis Hall of Fame	Karen enjoying the sunshine at the Edgartown Yacht Club

We sailed into New York Harbor for 4th of July. It was amazing to see the rejuvenated appreciation of the city on the part of those who lived there. Everyone we met had a special energy, a glow, that said "we like being here." We attended the fire works display for the 4th. The entire east side of Manhattan was closed off and a mass of humanity assembled for the festivity. People were lined up and down the entire length of the East Side Drive. 4 barges of fireworks simultaneously shot off an impressive barrage of fireworks for 1 hour. It was spectacular!

On a sad note, we got to see the World Trade Center before its demise. As we sailed into New York Harbor, we could not be more impressed with what we saw. The Verazanno bridge, the Statue of Liberty and the New York skyline all within our field of view, gave us pause for both the struggles and the successes of mankind. Now the Trade Center and the unfortunate people who died in that tragedy are no more, but it and they live on in our memories and renew our spirits to appreciate the best qualities of our humanity and all that flows from it.

Now we are in the process of trying to figure out which one of the routes shown below we will take from Florida to Panama. (Note: The course shown below was the original planned course at the time of posting this message. Things changed. We did not do any of these 3 routes. Rather, we went through the Bahamas and down through the Caribbean South to Trinidad.)

I guess our idea of having a shakedown period for the new boat was a good one. We leave today on our second attempt to get to the Bahamas after having lost our engine due to water back siphoning into our engine through a faulty anti-sipnoning valve on our engine exhaust. The problem was repaired quick enough, but losing the engine after having just crossed over to the Bahamas forced us to sail back to Ft. Lauderdale through the Gulf Stream. Fortunately, there was enough wind (despite light wind predictions) that we didn't have to worry about being swept northward. In addition, we lost the use of our windlass and our Stays'l furling unit also had to be fixed. Now we appear to be in great shape and are ready to restart our adventure. Here goes.....

Our best laid plans went astray!!! (See update June 11) We never made it out into the ocean. Turns out they closed the last bridge we had to pass through and it will not open for a week. We are within "throwing " distance of the ocean and can't get to it since our mast is too high to pass underneath the bridge and our draft is too deep to pass through the alternate shallow inlet a few miles north. So here we are. Be sure to check out our new Position reporting system (see our home page.)

We are still in Ft. Lauderdale waiting to get final commissioning items complete. We hope to leave soon but we might be here at least another week while the new DC refrigeration company (Beard Marine) takes over. We continue to get ourselves and the boat organized. We surmise by the time we finally leave (an additional six weeks rather than 10 days) the boat will have several coats of wax on her and all of our stowage will have been reorganized ten fold. We still hope to spend a short period in the Bahamas (about a week) and then we will head straight for Block Island via the Gulf Stream, weather permitting.

We are now back in Ft. Lauderdale. We are very proud of our new Dakare. Since we took possession of her in the Bahamas, we have put about 800 miles under her keel and we are very pleased to say that she not only handles well but is very comfortable. It took about 3 months to commission her and when we left on our maiden voyage there were still outstanding items to be completed. So here we are, back to have the final items on the boat completed.

We hope to be here for about 10 days and then we would like to head back out to the Bahamas. We will most likely be there for about two weeks and then we will head up to New England to further shake down the boat before leaving for the South Pacific in the fall/winter.


Newly weds Teresa and René	XMAS Dinner at the Berry's	Mike and Terry, Door into Summer


Barb Junghans	Miles Holtzman